They did not send the child to Far West, or even insist on Elvira
seeking safety there, because that town also became swiftly involved in
the flames of the war which had flashed into new life at the Gallatin
fight. The whole land was full of threats and terrors, and many open
fights at the polling-booths were soon reported. The Mormons and
anti-Mormons in various localities entered into mutual bonds to keep the
peace, but in many cases these bonds were soon broken.
To the Mormons everywhere had been issued a proclamation, signed by
Smith and the elders, commanding that no official tyranny, however
unjust, was to be resisted. "Let every soul be subject unto the higher
powers." "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's
sake." But when private violence was offered the order was that the men
should fight in defence of their families.
It seems to have been this order to fight, and the fact that the Mormons
proved themselves sturdy fighters, which alone caused any of the
Gentiles to enter into a compact of peace. So mad was their anger
against a sect claiming the land as an inheritance from God and voting
to a man in obedience to its leader, that the Missouri journals of the
day openly taught that to kill a Mormon was no worse than to kill an
Indian, and to kill an Indian was tacitly considered as meritorious as
killing a wild beast.
"I am just about as safe jogging along in one of your waggons as
anywhere in this part of the country," observed Elvira; "and if it was a
craving for peace and safety we had, why did we come to Missouri at all?
I feel exactly like a rabbit when the men are out trying to thin them; I
notice they get very frisky."
There was psychological truth underlying this statement. Stimulated by
the excitements of sudden alarms, Susannah also found herself enjoying
intervals of temporary security with peculiar zest.
They set forth again upon the country roads. Halsey had the burden of
his message upon his spirit; wherever they found a few Mormon households
gathered together, he preached to them the high ideals of Christian
living and the need of humility and constant prayer. Another theme he
had which he considered of equal importance; this was the interpretation
of prophecy. He gave long rapt discourses upon the most obscure passages
in the books of the prophets, the Revelation of St. John, and the Book
of Mormon. These passages were found chiefly to refer to the rise of
the Mormon Church, the iniquity of her enemies, and her glorious future.
Susannah, who saw the value of his practical teachings, bitterly
regretted this use of half his opportunities.
Only once or twice in many weeks did they come upon a Mormon household
whose management was not such as the moralist would approve, and in
those cases before Halsey's passionate denunciation sins were confessed
and repentance promised.
So they journeyed slowly out of the September heats and oppressive
shades into the cooler and more open glories of autumn. In that part of
the country wild flowers run riot at the approach of winter, painting
the land in broad leagues of colour, white and gold and blue, and the
trees of the forest hang in red curtains overhead. The air was so light
and invigorating that they all felt its tonic properties. Halsey seemed
eased of his burden; the child began to talk, babbling wise and
wonderful speeches. Elvira was even more frivolous than was her wont,
and Susannah almost forgot Halsey's dismal prophecy of martyrdom.
About the middle of October they reached the place called Haun's Mill,
where a small Mormon community was settled. Here they thought well to
pause, shocked by renewed rumours of warfare. A truce for the whole
region, which had been signed by Smith and some of his elders on the one
side, and by a magistrate, by name Adam Black, for the Gentiles, had
been broken by Gentile mobs in several of the counties near Far West. A
number of the saints had been brutally killed, their wives and children
driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet. This renewed
outrage roused at last the fires of revenge, long smouldering in the
breasts of the refugees from the desolate city of Zion, who had
themselves known the bitterness of such unmerited wrong. These fires
fused religious principle and natural wrath together, till a chain was
forged which bound many strong men in a secret society, whose members
swore to fight, not only in defence, but especially in vengeance.
It was at Haun's Mill that Halsey first heard of this society, and he
was deeply concerned. A young Mormon who had lately come to the place
belonged to it, and after one of Halsey's sermons, in which the posts of
the Gate of Life were represented as meekness and forgiveness, this
young man came to the preacher by night to confess, but also to
vindicate his position.
The missionary's little party, with the exception of Elvira, who had
accepted hospitality at a neighbouring farm, were camping in a meadow
not far from a stream called Shoal Creek, which drove the mill. The logs
of their evening fire were still alight. Susannah sat just within the
dark opening of a low canvas-covered waggon; the unsteady flame light
fell upon her, and sometimes showed a farther interior where the child
lay sleeping. Halsey was sitting at the roots of a tree, the utensils of
a simple supper at his side. The gentle horses tethered near were to be
heard softly cropping the grass, and the sound of the creek came from a
farther distance. Above, the poplar boughs, whose yellow foliage had
been thinned by the advancing season, let through the rays of the
brilliant stars. These were the sights and sounds which met the young
man's senses as he came brushing the fallen leaves with his feet.
He leaned against the pole of the farther waggon and looked across the
low-glowing fire at the preacher and his wife.
"Look here! I'm a Danite. Do you mean to say that the Lord's not going
to accept of me because I can't stand by and see weak men and women and
children killed, or worse than killed, without punishing the murderers?
Supposing that a hundred of Boggs' men were to come down now and put an
end to you, your wife, and your child, would you have me go along with
them peaceably afterwards and pray they might be forgiven?"
"What is a Danite?" asked Susannah.
The stranger took off his hat and answered her very respectfully. "We
are under an oath, ma'am, not to tell who belong to us, but we've bound
ourselves to punish them as take the blood of the helpless and
innocent."
He seemed, as far as the light would show, a well-made youth, and his
voice was clear and honest.
Halsey had not spoken, and Susannah asked again, this time of her
husband, "Can it be wrong to do as this gentleman says?"
The preacher spoke slowly. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the
Lord."
"But," said the young man eagerly, "the Scripture also says 'There's a
time for wrath,' and 'he that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his
blood be shed.'"
Halsey rose up. It was a strong moment for him, for he had long seen
that the spirit of retaliation, following hard on the spirit of defence,
was the coming curse of his beloved church, and had prayed that he might
be the means of helping to ward it off. Here was one asking counsel who
from the strength of his person and character might have influence among
the avengers of blood, yet with his helpless wife and child beside him
none felt more keenly than Halsey the force of the Danite's arguments,
and none knew better the multitude of Scripture prophecies that could be
brought up in support of them. In the strength of his need this man, who
had been spending the precious time of many a hardly-won audience in
dwelling on obscure poesies in books held sacred, now seemed to step
forth into a sudden illumination of truth just as he stepped from the
shadow of the poplar bole into the light of the fire.
"Friend, I did wrong to answer you in this matter from any part of
Scripture save from the mouth of our most blessed Lord himself, for he
alone is the gate by which we must enter into life, and I would have you
to consider most carefully his life and words, and find out if there be
any promise of blessedness to those who strike back when they are
struck, or any command to punish the evil-doer, or any example for such
punishment. But if you would be more manly and more gallant than the
Saviour of the world, I tell you it must be at your own peril, for he
alone is the gate of that road which leads to everlasting life."
There was a silence for some long moments. Embers in the fire broke and
fell; the horses cropped the grass; a nut or twig dropped somewhere
among the adjacent trees.
"Well," said the young Danite reflectively, "if that's it, I guess I'll
have to take my fling first and seek salvation after; but Smith and
Rigdon don't only preach that sort of Gospel now; they are all for the
Old Testament kind of thing, and the destroying angels in the
Revelations."